"World War II as I Remember It:" An Account of the War by Dr. Ann Elwood
Dublin Core
Title
"World War II as I Remember It:" An Account of the War by Dr. Ann Elwood
Description
The following passage was written by Dr. Ann Elwood and describes her memories of WWII.
"This scanned picture of me, age 14, doing a back bend, was taken in the summer of 1945, between the end of the war in Europe and the end of the war with Japan. It has nothing to do with the war other than to point out a rarely acknowledged historical fact – that during times of great upheaval, life for some goes on, at least part of the time, as it always has. Behind me, though you can’t see it in the photograph, is a large victory garden my father, with the sometime help of the rest of the family, tended on weekends and evenings after a long day at a war plant. We grew: tomatoes, carrots, green beans, eggplant, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, melons, raspberries, boysenberries, soy beans . . . We had a flock of chickens, and my father would sell some of the eggs to his co-workers.
The war in Europe started when I was eight. I can remember going to matinees at a local movie theater and seeing newsreels of Hitler haranguing crowds and being afraid. Planes overhead scared me – I thought we’d be bombed, even though the U.S. had not yet entered the war.
We lived on the East Coast, in a small town in New Jersey, not far from New York. Town volunteers, some of whom overly enjoyed their power, checked neighborhoods for compliance with blackout curtains and manned a watch tower to look for enemy planes. Stories circulated about those who identified Piper Cubs as Messerschmitts, but those stories were as apocryphal, I think, as those about enemy agents in town – for example, a German couple who lived across the street were reported as enemy spies because some people thought their marten house was a radio tower.
I wanted badly to have a serviceman to write to and send socks and cookies to, but I knew no one. My cousin, ten years older than I, was in love with a fighter pilot, the ultimate in glamor. I was very jealous of her.
Food was rationed. We didn’t eat meat every night and instead of butter spread oleo margarine on our Wonder bread. The margarine came in a package with an orange color capsule in it; we mashed the capsule and kneaded it through the oleo to make it look like yellow butter. It did not taste like butter.
My mother saved fat in a can for the war effort. My uncles (her brothers) teased her about her “fat can” (she was overweight). We also saved tinfoil and scrap metal.
We walked and took buses because gas and tires was rationed.
When the war with Japan was declared over – VJ Day, my friend Connie and I got on our bicycles and rode all over town looking for the celebration. We were hoping it would be something like the celebration in Times Square at VE day--crowds of people cheering and embracing. But the town, Saddle River (pop. 700) was quiet. It seemed a day like any other.
This is a drawing of Connie and me at VJ Day made a couple of years ago by my friend Neil Brooks."
"This scanned picture of me, age 14, doing a back bend, was taken in the summer of 1945, between the end of the war in Europe and the end of the war with Japan. It has nothing to do with the war other than to point out a rarely acknowledged historical fact – that during times of great upheaval, life for some goes on, at least part of the time, as it always has. Behind me, though you can’t see it in the photograph, is a large victory garden my father, with the sometime help of the rest of the family, tended on weekends and evenings after a long day at a war plant. We grew: tomatoes, carrots, green beans, eggplant, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, melons, raspberries, boysenberries, soy beans . . . We had a flock of chickens, and my father would sell some of the eggs to his co-workers.
The war in Europe started when I was eight. I can remember going to matinees at a local movie theater and seeing newsreels of Hitler haranguing crowds and being afraid. Planes overhead scared me – I thought we’d be bombed, even though the U.S. had not yet entered the war.
We lived on the East Coast, in a small town in New Jersey, not far from New York. Town volunteers, some of whom overly enjoyed their power, checked neighborhoods for compliance with blackout curtains and manned a watch tower to look for enemy planes. Stories circulated about those who identified Piper Cubs as Messerschmitts, but those stories were as apocryphal, I think, as those about enemy agents in town – for example, a German couple who lived across the street were reported as enemy spies because some people thought their marten house was a radio tower.
I wanted badly to have a serviceman to write to and send socks and cookies to, but I knew no one. My cousin, ten years older than I, was in love with a fighter pilot, the ultimate in glamor. I was very jealous of her.
Food was rationed. We didn’t eat meat every night and instead of butter spread oleo margarine on our Wonder bread. The margarine came in a package with an orange color capsule in it; we mashed the capsule and kneaded it through the oleo to make it look like yellow butter. It did not taste like butter.
My mother saved fat in a can for the war effort. My uncles (her brothers) teased her about her “fat can” (she was overweight). We also saved tinfoil and scrap metal.
We walked and took buses because gas and tires was rationed.
When the war with Japan was declared over – VJ Day, my friend Connie and I got on our bicycles and rode all over town looking for the celebration. We were hoping it would be something like the celebration in Times Square at VE day--crowds of people cheering and embracing. But the town, Saddle River (pop. 700) was quiet. It seemed a day like any other.
This is a drawing of Connie and me at VJ Day made a couple of years ago by my friend Neil Brooks."
Creator
Ann Elwood
Date
1945
Contributor
Ann Elwood
Rights
Image: CSUSM Department of History
Format
jpeg
Language
English
Type
Still Image
Files
Collection
Citation
Ann Elwood, “"World War II as I Remember It:" An Account of the War by Dr. Ann Elwood,” CSUSM History Harvest: WWII, accessed October 22, 2024, https://csusmhistorydepartment.com/HistoryHarvestWWII/items/show/75.